Admission is free, the doors open at 9 a.m. on weekdays, and it sits inside a park half of Boca drives past on the way to somewhere else. The Children's Science Explorium at 300 S Military Trail, inside Sugar Sand Park, is Boca's free hands-on science center, built for kids 5 to 12.

If your summer mornings have collapsed into the same two options, this is the third one.

What You're Getting Into

Inside is a permanent floor of hands-on exhibits, the kind kids press, crank, and argue over, plus a traveling exhibit that rotates through each year, so the room changes even for repeat visitors. On weekends there is extra programming layered on top, including science story times on Saturdays and short live demos.

The detail that separates it from every paid kids' attraction in the county: admission is free and it is publicly run, open 9 to 6 on weekdays and 10 to 5 on weekends and holidays. There is a suggested $5 donation per person, collected the fun way through a donation alligator near the entrance. Bring a couple of singles and let the kids feed it. The only days it closes are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.

First visit: arrive at the weekday 9 a.m. open, do the exhibit floor while it is fresh, and save the outdoor playground for after.

The Insider Move

Make it a double feature. The same park holds the Science Playground that USA Today's Readers' Choice Awards ranked #9 in the entire country this spring, so a free morning becomes a free half-day: Explorium first while the sun climbs, playground after. Everything sits inside Sugar Sand Park at the same address, and parking is free right inside the park. If you have a dollar to spare, the park carousel runs $1 a ride.

What People Are Saying

Families keep calling it one of the best family outings in Boca, and reviewers single out how friendly and helpful the staff are throughout the science center. The bigger receipt is the USA Today readers' poll putting the adjoining Science Playground at #9 nationally, the kind of third-party proof Boca parents rarely get for something that costs nothing. It made local news this spring.

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